CNA vs Medical Assistant

Nursing Students CNA/MA

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What is the difference between a CNA and a medical assistant?

...Umm...exactly how did you get that job?

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I know everybody asks me that. I don't even want to move on to being a nurse any more. Once I get my 3k/month, I think I'm going to stop going to school.

It's a great job. And I hope I don't get laid off.

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Please don't give up on school because you've got a great job. I've done that twice in my life and lived to regret it. Enjoy making the money you're making now but that education will give you something to fall back on.

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I'm just going to take a course per semester. I like going to school believe it or don't. It takes me away from my daily rutine. I won't give up, I'm just going to cut the school load.

Anyway, my supervisor keeps asking me how's school going, so I can't say I quit.

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Hey all...okay so I have read EVERYONEs comments.... I got my Bachelors in Organizational and Speech Communication... and like everyone else out there, realized the job market is awful. I am a type one diabetic (have been since I was 6) and had always wanted to go into the medical field... but sadly never really figured out how. I would love to work for peds in endocrinology or something....still trying to figure everything out... and still make a decent salary to pay for everything (like 20+ an hour)... should I try MA or CNA? Im so confused!

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CNAs earn less per hour, generally, than MAs, but there are greater job opportunities and the cost of training is way less. Your better bet is to get a CNA certificate IMHO.

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Hey all...okay so I have read EVERYONEs comments.... I got my Bachelors in Organizational and Speech Communication... and like everyone else out there, realized the job market is awful. I am a type one diabetic (have been since I was 6) and had always wanted to go into the medical field... but sadly never really figured out how. I would love to work for peds in endocrinology or something....still trying to figure everything out... and still make a decent salary to pay for everything (like 20+ an hour)... should I try MA or CNA? Im so confused!

20 an hour isn't going to be from MA or CNA. If you want that kind of money you need to look at RN, Resp. Therapist, radiology or Medical Lab Tech. Most local community colleges have those kinds of programs and since you have your bachelors your one step ahead of many applicants. Good luck :)

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for me i would like something like the medical assistant cause you can work in the doctors office at the front. I just am not one for the nursing thing.

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Well Im sure some of you have seen my thread, but I will post here. I WISH UPON A STAR I could go back and really think things through. I signed up with everest for the MA program, have one more mod left and owe a grand total of $18,000 in student loans. The program was 15k and I had someother loans from a university I attended before. I am not finished yet and if I do get hired at a starting rate of 15$ an hour I won't be so disgruntled. But again, there are more opportunites for CNA IMO now that I've done my research. The CNA program at my local CC is 8 weeks and $150!!! If only, if only. At least I know where my passion now lies. My ultimate goal is to be a nurse, then a nurse practitioner so I'll be at this awhile. Just got my self off to a very expensive start lol.

In summary: If you wanna be an MA great, just find the cheapest way like at your CC. I do not recommend everest at all.

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Well Im sure some of you have seen my thread, but I will post here. I WISH UPON A STAR I could go back and really think things through. I signed up with everest for the MA program, have one more mod left and owe a grand total of $18,000 in student loans. The program was 15k and I had someother loans from a university I attended before. I am not finished yet and if I do get hired at a starting rate of 15$ an hour I won't be so disgruntled. But again, there are more opportunites for CNA IMO now that I've done my research. The CNA program at my local CC is 8 weeks and $150!!! If only, if only. At least I know where my passion now lies. My ultimate goal is to be a nurse, then a nurse practitioner so I'll be at this awhile. Just got my self off to a very expensive start lol.

In summary: If you wanna be an MA great, just find the cheapest way like at your CC. I do not recommend everest at all.

I kind of feel your pain. I wanted to take the PCT course at Everest, but I did a lot of research on them and no matter what website I looked at, all I heard were the most frightening things about that school. Their PCT course is about 14k and at my age I am just not interested in taking out that kind of debt with a school that has a reputation for not teaching their students and then setting those students out into the world unable to find jobs in the fields they invested time and money studying. Still, with all the bad things I heard I considered giving that school a chance until I was fortunate enough to meet a girl who had taken the PCT course at the exact same Everest campus I was interested in attending and she confirmed my worst fears - she had withdrawn after a few months because the instructors in her classes either didn't seem to know what they were teaching, or were not really teaching her the skills she had been promised would be taught to her when she enrolled. Even still again I occasionally consider enrolling at Everest...but 14k is just too much for me to risk at a school that has such a dubious reputation.

I have half a dozen cheaper and more reputable state funded schools in my area that offer PCT training but their placement test has basic alegbra and I am sure I would probably not score high enough to gain entrance. They allow you to take a 3 month remedial course but then I would have to wait all the way until next fall to start their PCT program. I am just not willing to go through all that for PCT training. Everest attracted me because in addition to being five minutes from my house, I wouldn't have to jump through all of the hoops I would have to jump through to get into the state program. I suspect that is why many students wind up at Everest in the end. So for now I will focus on CNA. I plan on relocating eventually, and the area I plan on moving too has EKG and Phleb offered at their CC without having to take a battery of tests to get in. Hopefully that will help me find hospital work one day. But for now my PCT dreaming is on the backburner.

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^^Just goes to show that the easy way is more than likely not the best way. Im glad you didn't enroll. The way I'm headed I will be starting from scratch. Sure I know how to give injections and draw blood and take vitals now but did I have to spend 15k to learn this lol? Survey says: No :(

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What makes more more money Medical Assistance or CNA? What is the difference? What do you study for either?

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